Tailgating Emergency!

[OUscotty]

I've never owned Satellite signal so my apologies if I don't understand some of the terminology (I'm a network admin but have little experience in this area).

Ok maybe not an emergency but here's my situation. On my house I just moved into I have a DirecTV oval dish with the LMB(?) still attached to it. It has space for 5 little white transponders or LMBs or whatever they are called on it. Running off of it is two coax cables, one that was just wrapped up on the roof and the other which ran into the wall area somewhere in my attic.

I had a friend bring a standard receiver over (D12-100) and hooked it up to the coax running from the satellite. I get into the receiver and start doing a signal test. The satellite is set to 18 and SWM and I get nothing, 0% signal strength and all of the little 'transponder' things on the screen show 0. I switch it to "Multi-Switch" and I get 100% when I bring it up and an example line on 1-8 it shows 100 for 1 and 100 for 8 and similarly across the other transponders. However I can't get anything to happen with the satellite signal in terms of a guide or any channels. I also thought it was odd I could set the dish type to Round 18" and I would still get 100% signal strength on Multi-switch.

I don't really understand how this works but all I'm wanting to do is use the dish on top of my house, use someone's receiver and watch some games at the tailgate. Possible or no? What should I be doing to troubleshoot / get this working.

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[dfergie]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys, it would be a lot easier with a SD receiver to just get a Phase III dish, it is smaller & easier to aim & set up. Check with local dealer / installers or even garage sales or flea markets for the phase III.

 

[OUscotty]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys, it would be a lot easier with a SD receiver to just get a Phase III dish, it is smaller & easier to aim & set up. Check with local dealer / installers or even garage sales or flea markets for the phase III.

Thank you for the welcome!! Yeah this is kind of last minute since our normal guy with DTV service has backed out this year so I'm scrambling for Saturday. I'm guessing from looking at everything that I have a slimline, that the LMB is SWM and I did some more research in the last few hours. Do I need something called a power inserter? From what I'm reading they are necessary to power the SWM style LMB.

 

[mikew]

You actually need to start off with your own account. "Borrowing" a receiver is also "stealing" service. I suppose post #2 will be your last.

 

[dfergie]

Your friend will be at the games with you with his receiver & you will not be using his receiver at your house right? (otherwise that is against our & Directv's T.O.S.)

 

[OUscotty]

Your friend will be at the games with you with his receiver & you will not be using his receiver at your house right? (otherwise that is against our & Directv's T.O.S.)

Well the guys directTV service that we used to use is gone however one of our other tailgaters that is a co-owner I suppose has the DTV service he just doesn't obviously want to take his dish off his roof whereas I do not have DTV service but an existing dish with LMBs

 

[dfergie]

Cool, just checking to make sure there was no account stacking... you still would be better off finding a phase III as the slimlines are monsters and are hard to setup and aim at a permanent setup much less tailgating...

 

[harshness]

Some terminology:

LNB: Low Noise Block
Legacy SL5 LNB: One coax per tuner (as opposed to receiver; what the dish on your roof is outfitted with)
SWM: Single Wire Multiswitch (what you don't have)

 

[OUscotty]

Cool, just checking to make sure there was no account stacking... you still would be better off finding a phase III as the slimlines are monsters and are hard to setup and aim at a permanent setup much less tailgating...

Do any phase III dishes do HD? Keep in mind this is only a one TV setup so it doesn't have to be fancy but HD would be great as I can get a receiver and sign up for my own service in the future as the guy at our tailgate might not want to disconnect/resetup his HD receiver every week.

 

[harshness]

Your friend will be at the games with you with his receiver & you will not be using his receiver at your house right? (otherwise that is against our & Directv's T.O.S.)

A literal interpretation of the T.O.S. doesn't allow for tailgating either.

(h) Private Viewing. We provide Service only for your private non-commercial use, enjoyment and home viewing. The programming may not be viewed in areas open to the public or in commercial establishments.

 

[raoul5788]

Do any phase III dishes do HD? Keep in mind this is only a one TV setup so it doesn't have to be fancy but HD would be great as I can get a receiver and sign up for my own service in the future as the guy at our tailgate might not want to disconnect/resetup his HD receiver every week.

No, sort of! The Phase III dish is for sd channels. The normal dish for hd is the Slimline. Some have put the sl3 or sl5 lnb from a Slimline on a Phase III dish for tailgating purposes. It works okay, but not as good as the Slimline. The advantage to using the Phase III is that it's much smaller and easier to handle.

 

[dfergie]

They can using a SL5 or SL3 LNB, and harshness is technically right on the T.O.S. but tailgating or camping is different from stacking...

 

[raoul5788]

A literal interpretation of the T.O.S. doesn't allow for tailgating either.

Literally, yes, it's against the TOS. In fact, it's a widely accepted practice. No one is gaining financially from it, the true intent of the clause.

 

[BobStokesbary]

Let's come at this from a different direction. Rather than you taking the lead on this, why don't you ask around who has Direct service and agree to give (or loan) them your dish. Let them do the setup. Taking their receiver along with them is accepted. Moreover, the person who already had the direct service will probably know what to do to set this up for tailgating. This seems like the simplest solution to your situation.

P.S. You will also need to locate a tripod stand for the antenna. Or you can work out a platform for the dish mast. (Using a tripod is much easier.)

 

[OUscotty]

From a moral standpoint, I have no qualms using a satellite for tailgating. We have a tent with 'walls' and there's really not a huge difference between what we do and being at home so from a moral standpoint, my concious is clear and I doubt DirecTV would ever enforce that part of the service unless I'm charging entry into the tent

So I could try ordering a Phase III dish, then put a SL5 LMB onto it (complicated?)

I found this dish on amazon and it 'says' that with the Triple LMB it has that it can accept HD signals so I'm guessing if I got a compatible HD receiver for that dish I'd be good to go. Is there a receiver to dish matrix out there for DTV? I've been trying to locate one and can't find one that shows what receiver would work with what dishes.

http://www.amazon.com/PHASEIII-Dire...2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1314924178&sr=1-2

I really do appreciate your all's help, I'm learning a lot about something in which I have had no prior experience so I thank you for that.

Let's come at this from a different direction. Rather than you taking the lead on this, why don't you ask around who has Direct service and agree to give (or loan) them your dish. Let them do the setup. Taking their receiver along with them is accepted. Moreover, the person who already had the direct service will probably know what to do to set this up for tailgating. This seems like the simplest solution to your situation.

P.S. You will also need to locate a tripod stand for the antenna. Or you can work out a platform for the dish mast. (Using a tripod is much easier.)

I have thought about that however the guy with the DirecTV service is not very technical (at all) whereas being a network administrator/engineer I deal with this type of stuff frequently just not the satellite side of things in which I have 0 experience.

 

[raoul5788]

No, the lnb on this dish won't get the 99 and 103 satellites where the hd channels are. You can use just the dish with the sl3 or sl5 lnb. DIRECTV SL3 SlimLine Four Out Ka/Ku Slim Line LNB (SL3) from Solid Signal
It won't have as much signal strength as it would with the Slimline dish, but it's much smaller. You will have to notch the arm on the Phase III dish to accept the new lnb.

 

[Jimbo]

Getting this stuff before Saturday will be difficult.

 

[harshness]

So I could try ordering a Phase III dish, then put a SL5 LMB onto it (complicated?)

It is very complicated. First, you have to fashion an arm to mount the LNB on and then, through trial and error, you have to develop a system for aiming it (the Phase III lined up on 110W and the Slimlines point at 101W).

I found this dish on amazon and it 'says' that with the Triple LMB it has that it can accept HD signals so I'm guessing if I got a compatible HD receiver for that dish I'd be good to go.

The HD part of that went away a few years ago. They haven't changed the ad copy since then.

Is there a receiver to dish matrix out there for DTV? I've been trying to locate one and can't find one that shows what receiver would work with what dishes.

The matrix is that SD receivers can use the Phase III dish and HD receivers must use the Slimline (or AT-9 in a pinch) dish.

In the grand scheme, while bulkier, the Slimline is a whole lot easier to dial in than a cobbled up Phase III. This is especially important if you ever have cloudy days during the football season.

 

[raoul5788]

It is very complicated. First, you have to fashion an arm to mount the LNB on and then, through trial and error, you have to develop a system for aiming it (the Phase III lined up on 110W and the Slimlines point at 101W)

Fashion an arm? My understanding is that you must notch the existing arm to accept the lnb, that's it as far as adapting the dish. You do have to change the azimuth and skew closer to the Slimline numbers, but it's all trial and error when you don't have the proper meter anyway. Harshness, have you read the posts about how to do it or actually done it yourself? You are making it sound much harder than it is.

 

[steecoe]

It's actually very easy to use the phase III dish with an SL3 LNB. SOme people choose to make a notch on the LNB holder arm, I chose to grind off the nub thats on the LNB itself. As for aiming the dish, use the coordinates for the SL3 as a starting point & then peak the 101 until it's really nailed as high as possible & then adujust the tilt to find a good balance between the 99 & 103's. Be sure your mast is dead level & plumb & you shouldn't have too much trouble at all.

I have been running a fixed (chimney mounted) setup up like this for a couple years & only have trouble in the heaviest of rains or if the snow builds up between the dish & LNB..